After hundreds of people dying

[mucko]

i would like to know WHY these terrorist insiste on blowing themselves and other innocent people up? surely there is an epidemic in the middle-east of mental illness as no-one in their right state of mind would want to kill themselves for the sake of religion. will this problem ever be solved and if not - would it be best to get out and leave them to sort out their own countries? another thing i'd like to know - are the people of islam only interested in ridding their country of the west or do they want the west to be a part of islam aswell?

[incitatus]

you have to remember that islam as a whole does not endorse or encourage these activities. It s like saying that all christians are like the rev. Jimmy Jones. These are extremist loonies who want to get control of their area. What they want is difficult to say. As for it being mental illness- yes its called religion.

[poppyj]

Well put incitatus. I dont think anyone will be able to tell you exactly WHY terrorists blow themselves and other innocent people up, but it gets their cause on the front pages, it gets public attention, it gets debates like this started.

[nedflanders]

Yeah you're right Mucko !

[mucko]

maybe so incitatus, but surely these islamic terrorists are more in abundance and more extreme than most religious loonies?

[saffstar]

Totally agree with what Incitatus said. I'm reading a book on this subject at the moment. It's called 'Sacred Rage' and is by an American journalist called Robin Wright so far, it's pretty good. The thing seems to be that it wasn't like this in the beginning. As I'm sure you're already aware, once the crusades ended, the Islamic world got on really well with the west. A big catalyst for the current situation seems to have been when the multinational force (USA, France, Italy & Britain, I think) were sent in to keep the peace in Lebanon in the late 70s. The force was actually welcomed by the Muslims who were being persecuted by the Christian minority government. Once there we made some terrible decisions/mistakes, which destroyed our reputation of impartiality and seriously angered the Muslims. So we probably should have left things alone in the first place. As for suicide bombers; they see what they do as the only weapon they have against the 'huge military might' of the west. They genuinely believe they're dying for a just cause (due to intensive training/brainwashing) and so have a first class ticket to paradise, and if the people they kill are innocents then they'll go too. As for the 'global' Islamic state, I don't think that this is a main aim of the extremists, I think that they just want us out. The problem, as I see it, is that whenever you have a situation where people feel desperate and completely powerless, it becomes simple for someone who's clever, manipulative and evil enough to step in and take advantage. What I'd like to know is, if suicide bombing is such a sure way to paradise then why are all the leaders who endorse it old men?

[Znoober]

"No-one in their right state of mind would want to kill themselves for the sake of religion." Why not exactly? Someone (to be honest, I have no idea who) once said, "If you haven't found anything worth dying for, then you haven't found anything worth living for." I'm positive that the majority of 'normal' people from the West have something in their life that they'd die for (religion, family, friends, etc). Why are these guys any different? Their religion is so important to them and, as saffstar says, suicide bombers believe what they are doing is a good thing, thus they are willing to die for their cause.

[mucko]

doesn't make it right though...........i think a majority of people accept that these people are brainwashed by their religion. i say ban it! (awaiting onslaught...)

[bobbobley]

it is just brainwashing. i have things that i would die for, but they are important to me and close to my heart and not something that someone else has told me I should believe. these people are taught from a very young age that when they kill themselves as part of the holy war, that they will ascend to a paradise and live in great pleasure, being serviced by beautiful women etc etc. When you hear that over and over again for years, and compare the vision of it to the hellhole in which you are currently living, then I guess it would have some appeal. it would be wonderful if people on this planet could just live and let live and be convinced that all this praying and worshipping to different gods just amounts to the same thing - faith in an unproved existence of a higher being. God, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Jehovah - does it really matter as long as you believe what you believe and live and let live? Its obvious that not everyone can be right in their beliefs about religion as there are so many hundreds of different ones, and yet people still want to persist in fighting to prove their beliefs are the best! madmental.

[JohnPPotts]

Because they see themselves as being dominated by an oppresive regime (Israel and/or the USA) and are prepared to do anything to remove that force. The fact that we don't see the world that way doesn't mean that others don't think it is like that - as far as they're concerned, they're like the Resistance to the Nazis in occupied Europe.

[nedflanders]

There is nothing wrong with having something to die for but don't kill innocent men, women and children who just want to get to school.

[thekraut]

But what if these innocent people were just hiding behind an army which is taking care of the necessary violence for them? not so innocent after all, is it?

[jimro]

I am a Christian.. and I feel that anyone willing to kill another for what ever reason is wrong... and I am sure that no relegion would support that... except the religion of the devil.. its evil and I feel satan promotes it.. these people are evil................ not religious in the true sence ... I truely beleive the suicide bombers are going to a promised land .. Hell !!

[XENAWP]

I wish I was in control of the entire world and I would ban all religion.  It causes nothing but conflict and it is simply nothing more than brainwashing and a way of enforcing social control.

In this day and age, advanced societies have alternative, scientific, psychological explanations for things, which poorer countries do not.  This would explain in part, why societies place so much emphasis on religious nonsense.  Ignorance at its best.

I do not think that religious beliefs should be taught/enforced to children at school.  There is no place for it in today's society. 

[ianess]

If we lived where they live,and we were taught what they were taught, then surely we would believe what they believe.

Whether right or wrong, it`s not easy to alter another person`s beliefs.